Angelic Pretty is the name of a Japanese fashion company specializing in lolita fashion

Lolita fashion

is a fashion subculture originating in Japan that is based on Victorian-era clothing as well as costumes from the Rococo period, but the style has expanded greatly beyond these two. The Lolita look began primarily as one of modesty with a focus on quality in both material and manufacture of garments...

, created in 1979.
Angelic Pretty sells an assortment of sweet lolita clothing: Accessories, coats, dresses, jumper skirts, blouses, cutsews, skirts, headdresses, petticoats and bloomers, shoes, socks, bags and more.

As well as the brand's popularity in Japan, Angelic pretty is increasingly becoming one of the most well known Lolita brands world wide.

In 2008, the company opened an official English site to cater for their fast growing foreign customers.

Brand Concept

Angelic Pretty is a sweet lolita brand, heavily influenced by the dream of little girls to become princesses.
The official brand concept from the English website is as follows:

The Angelic Pretty line-up offers a cute, Lolita-like fashion style, enchanted to make a girl's dreams come true.

Angelic Pretty provides adorable clothing covered in lace, frills and ribbons like that of the fairytale princess you dreamed about as a little girl. We want girls to never lose sight of that dream. And this is a brand for girls who want to keep that dream alive.

At Cosplay Oneesan's Event "Yumemiru Musical Paradise", Maki and Asuka (see below) were further interviewed about the concept of Angelic Pretty, elaborating on the use of the colour pink. They said that they try to use the colour in as many ways as possible and change it with the season, the fashion trends, with the over-all aim to make it pretty.
When asked about the story of the designs, both designers were reluctant to respond, since it is up to the girls that wear the clothing to write their own princess story.

All Angelic Pretty stores are decorated almost exclusively with the colour pink, which further shows the brand concept's connection to this colour and underlines the references to fairytale princesses.

Stores

Angelic Pretty's main store is in the department store Laforet

Laforet

Department Store and Museum is a department store and museum located in the Harajuku commercial and entertainment district of the Shibuya neighborhood, in Tokyo, Japan, on one of Harajuku's most famous intersections....

 in Harajuku

Harajuku

Harajuku is the common name for the area around Harajuku Station on the Yamanote Line in the Shibuya ward of Tokyo, Japan....

 (Tokyo), but there are also currently stores in the cities Shinjuku (Tokyo), Osaka

Osaka

is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...

, Nagoya, Sendai, Utsonomiya, Hiroshima

Hiroshima

is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It became best known as the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M...

, Yokohama

Yokohama

is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...

, Kanazawa

Kanazawa, Ishikawa

is the capital city of Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan.-Geography, climate, and population:Kanazawa sits on the Sea of Japan, bordered by the Japan Alps, Hakusan National Park and Noto Peninsula National Park. The city sits between the Sai and Asano rivers. Its total area is 467.77 km².Kanazawa's...

, Fukuoka

Fukuoka

Fukuoka most often refers to the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture.It can also refer to:-Locations:* Fukuoka, Gifu, a town in Gifu Prefecture, Japan* Fukuoka, Toyama, a town in Toyama Prefecture, Japan...

, Okayama and Sannomiya

Sannomiya

is a district of Chūō-ku, Kobe, Japan. Today, it is the biggest downtown area in the city.Before the 1920s, Sannomiya was just an edge of the city. The major downtowns were Motomachi and Shinkaichi, which are west of Sannomiya...

.

At Cosplay Oneesan, Maki and Asuka stated that Angelic Pretty wishes to open a store in the United States, but at the moment it is still just a dream; On October 4, 2010, the Angelic Pretty USA website was launched, and a public announcement was made that an official boutique will be opened in San Francisco's Union Square district in the month of November 2010.

Maki and Asuka

Two of the designers which have made themselves well known throughout the lolita community are Maki and Asuka. They have appeared at the American event PMX hosted by Cosplay Oneesan during November 2007, and Cosplay Oneesan's standalone event "Yumemiru Musical Paradise" in 2008 where a designer panel was held, and a recreation of one of the Japan Angelic Pretty stores.

Maki and Asuka are scheduled to appear at Oneesan Inc's Gothic and Lolita event "Fantaisies dans le Monde des Rêves" on May 28-31st 2010 In San Jose California along with the designers of Chantilly, Atelier-Pierrot, Vivcore, and Sweet Rococo.

Maki is from the Saitama prefecture. She started working for Angelic Pretty in 2003 and is one of the main designers. She majored in Illustration from a vocational school. Before graduating she brought some of her art to Angelic Pretty to answer their ad and was offered a job, working her way through school. Originally she wasn't interested in clothing design as "you can't draw scenery on clothes, so I thought I would prefer drawing." She is in charge of designing socks as well as choosing the base cloth and thread.

Asuka is from Kanagawa prefecture. She started at Angelic Pretty in 2001. She is another of the main designers, however she also oversees all press work. She majored in Design during high school and entered a vocational school for clothing and accessories. Similar to Maki she answered an ad that Angelic Pretty had placed and was offered a job. She designs shoes, bags and parasols.

External links

• Official site of Angelic Pretty
• Official English site of Angelic Pretty
• Interview with Maki and Asuka at Cosplay Oneesan YouTube clip of the interview with Maki and Asuka at Cosplay Oneesan
• Yumemiru Musical Paradise Cosplay Oneesan's Yumemiru Musical Paradise
• Anime News Network Anime News Network on Yumemiru Musical Paradise
• Angelic Pretty USA official site Angelic Pretty USA